Patch 5.2 - 10 and 25 Player Raid Loot Changes

Patch 5.2 - 10 and 25 Player Raid Loot Changes

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Coming to the PTR in the near future will be a new designation of item type in Normal and Heroic raids for non-tier pieces. Each 5.2 raid boss will have a chance of dropping this new designation of a particular item that’s 6 item levels higher than their counterparts. These higher quality versions will be called “Thunderforged”. This means that there will be five variations of some items. You’ll now see a 5.2 raid item of LFR quality at item level 502, the same item in Normal quality at item level 522, the item in Normal Thunderforged quality at item level 528, the Heroic version of the item at level 535, and the Heroic Thunderforged version of the item at level 541.

This new item designation is being added for a couple reasons, but first and foremost to make loot drops more interesting overall, especially after you have earlier bosses in Throne of Thunder on farm. As you’re working on progression, those first few bosses can now continue to provide a chance at upgrades, making repeated kills potentially more exciting and rewarding. Those additional upgrades can then help to slowly raise power, and boost you over whatever progression roadblock you may hit.

We’ve also received a lot of feedback regarding 25-player raids, and have been looking for ways to address some concerns. Ever since we changed 10-player raids to drop the same item level as 25s, we’ve seen a steady decline in 25-player raiding. This isn’t surprising. A 25-player raid takes an extra level of logistical commitment for the officers of those groups. It’s unfortunately easy for a 25-player guild to collapse down into a 10-player guild, but very unlikely for the opposite to happen. However, we like 25-player raiding and don’t want to see it go away. Like many players, we love the epic feeling that comes with banding together more massive groups to battle powerful foes, we love that there’s opportunity for those groups to try out new players or unusual comps without causing a huge burden, and we want to support the larger raiding guilds. That said, we’re also concerned that over-rewarding the 25-player guilds—if, for example, we went back to a higher item level across the board for 25s, as was the case for Icecrown Citadel—would feel like a slap in the face to the many 10-player raiders out there, who are the majority of our Normal and Heroic raiders.

To attempt to navigate this minefield, we’re going to try having Thunderforged items drop more frequently in 25-player raids. They’ll be somewhat rare in both cases compared to the standard versions that’ll drop, but they’ll be even rarer in 10s. Overall, a 25-player group will be more likely to end up with a slightly higher item level after several weeks of raiding.

It’s important to keep in mind that this only affects 10- and 25-player Normal and Heroic raids, and tier-15 armor pieces won’t be available in Thunderforged quality at all. We’re curious to hear your thoughts about these changes, and what you think once you begin seeing them on the PTR.

This is actually a really nice way to go about the 10/25 logistic dilemma. Im assumine that each piece of loot that drops will only have a 1-2% chance of being Thunderforged (Since there are so many bosses). So this is just a nice way to still have pieces to get while we farm the content we have already cleared.

Also the fact that its available on both difficulties with a slightly higher chance on 25 means that no one is left out and people who raid 25 can still feel special. :P

Pretty decent solution to multiple problems. My guild is at the point where Mogu'shan Vaults requires very little time but it also offers virtually zero reward. A system like this will ensure that does not occur.

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While I think it's impossible to truly incentivize 10- and 25-mans equally, I think this is a good compromise solution. 25s won't be objectively better, but will be a bit extra rewarding to compensate for the logistics.

It's entirely possible some of the playerbase will overreact and move from 10s to 25s again out of a thought of being left in the dust if they don't, but we'll see.